New pond question

[swampysue]

Hi,

I am a newbie and have just built a small wildlife pond, I wonder if someone could answer a few questions for me?

I have edged my pond with large rocks, cobbles and pea shingle to create a natural look; I washed these as best I could before positioning them but some dirt/sand still got into the water which has made it a bit murky. Will the dirt settle and the water clear after a time? I have added some hornwort oxygenators and will have a couple of marginal plants and am hoping these will keep the water clean.

The pond is only about 2 metres by 1.5 metres and I would like to add a small water lilly. Can anyone suggest one that would be suitable?

[tom00_uk]

as long as the edging stones are inert and not going to leach into the water then thats fine, dont worry about a little dirt getting in, it will settle out and be added to over time by dust, visiting wildlife and any thing else that blows in or rots in the pond.

waterlily's tend to grow quite large, theres a native thats waterlily like, thats compact and would better suit a wildlife pond if your keeping it natural

[Stomatopod]

Sounds like a good start Sue,

The best thing for a new wildlife pond is a few buckets of water and silt from another, well established and wildlife rich pond. This will introduce the microorganisms that will help ballance the pond ecosystem. Silt should settle out, however it is likely you will get algal blooms for the first year at least while the system sorts itself. Daphnia bought from aquatic stores can help to control algal blooms.
.
You do need patience as it often takes 3 or 4 years for the pond to establish properly, but its definitely worth the wait.

Wildlife ponds should use native plant species whenever possible and avoid fish. Nymphaea lutea is the native yellow water lilly and is sutable for small ponds but may need a bit of keeping in check to prevent it covering the whole pond surface. Failing that there are a huge variety of Dwarf onamental lillies available from garden centres.

Hope that helps.

[Dorts]

I agree entirely with Stomatopod's reply. A perfect answer to this question.

My advice is always try and make your pond twice the planned size to allow for more depth and ever increasing growth of plants. Don't be tempted to introduce too many plants, or they will soon cover your pond and as Stomatopod has said, allow it to develop naturally, don't try and rush it.
Dorts.

[swampysue]

Thanks for the advice, I have just ordered some native plants online, hopefully it will be ok to put them in the pond when they arrive; I had no choice but to fill the pond with mains water as my water butt is empty and I'm very impatient

The water is starting to clear now and I have planted up the edges today, here's a pic, I have used mainly what I had in the garden already just to fill the spaces really, but I might change the planting gradually. Can't wait for my visitors to arrive

I would welcome any comments or suggestions.

[slimrbp]

Looks good to me A nice escape ramp should anyone need to climb out.

My pond is about the the same size, I dug it over easter and now we have a thriving colony of Damselfly Larvae, Mayfly larvae, two frogs, lots of snails (a gift with the plants), water slaters and daphina (I bought these to help with algal control).

Depending on how deep the water is you could consider a flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus) it can go into water up to 50cm. The damsleflies like to perch on the leaves and when it flowered the bees liked it as well

Good luck with the pond I am sure the spring will bring you a few visitors!

[Littlesparrow]

Assuming you get some frog visitors soon you might like to put some hiding places around the garden such as a log pile, large rock, cracked flower pot hidden in the bushes. Frogs don't stay in the pond all the time so it gives them somewhere to go.

[Malcolm Banks]

All good advice but it is in my blood to suggest that you confirm the donor pond is free of overt disease amongst verts and macro inverts, even if wildlife rich is an excellent indicator of general health. Blanket-weed free would also be a valuable feature of donor pond. Don't know of any destructive aquatic plant diseases on a par with Iridovirus or Chytrid fungus, but someone might??!!
M

[Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by slimrbp

Looks good to me
Depending on how deep the water is you could consider a flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus) it can go into water up to 50cm. The damsleflies like to perch on the leaves and when it flowered the bees liked it as well

Interesting, I have an irrational belief that bullrush plant roots will somehow pierce my liner (no idea where that's come from & not founded on any scientific basis either ) Now I know it's total rubbish (thank you ) I can try & find one, probably come spring now. I'm always on the lookout for deep water plants, but the garden centres only seem to sell shallow marginals.

[slimrbp]

Originally Posted by Cowgirl

Interesting, I have an irrational belief that bullrush plant roots will somehow pierce my liner (no idea where that's come from & not founded on any scientific basis either ) Now I know it's total rubbish (thank you ) I can try & find one, probably come spring now. I'm always on the lookout for deep water plants, but the garden centres only seem to sell shallow marginals.

I got my plant from puddleplants, the flowering rush is apparently a relation of the water plantain rather than a true rush, so you could be right about the 'proper' rushes